REPORT: CONGRATULATIONS CHAMPION TIGERS

11/10/23

Poole's dream of a straight hat-trick of league titles were shattered as the fourteen point deficit from Monday's first leg proved a bridge too far.

Already facing a tough task, the Pirates immediately went behind to a Chris Harris Tom Brennan maximum in heat one and although reserves Kyle Newman and Joe Thompson restored parity on the night, Poole struggled to break into that deficit, falling further behind in heat five, again Harris and Brennan doing the damage with a 4-2 this time. A Lee Complin fall on lap three as he mis-navigated the fourth turn allowed Poole to share a heat that again was heading the way of the visitors as Vadim Tarasenko had the comfortable beating of Richard Lawson.

Steve Worrall found himself riding into Ace Pijper at the first turn with both riders falling together. Once separated it came as a bit of a shock to the Poole fans to see Worrall's disqualification light come on, given that many other first bend incidents this season had been recalled with all competitors. So the pressure was on Newman, as the lone Pirate and whilst he was quick to see off Pijper he couldn't impress on Benjamin Basso, thus Glasgow took the overall aggregate score to an advantage of eighteen points. Tom Brennan was the only pre-programmed rider to head to the start for heat eight, as Zach Cook was taking the rider replacement ride, Kyle Newman was replacing Thompson and Cameron Brown was switching his reserves, Lee Complin standing in for Pijper. It was Brennan who claimed a fairly comfortable win over Cook and Newman, so whilst there was no further points slippage, heats were rapidly running away for a total Poole recovery and that prompted a team talk from boss Middleditch.

Whatever the ten-times league winning boss said appeared to resonate as the Cook boys paired up to keep out Tarasenko, to record only Poole's second 5-1 of the whole tie. Lawson managed to find a late heat ten pass on Complin and with Newman consigning Basso to last place Poole went ahead for the first time on the night.

Briefly Poole broke the winning combination of Harris and Brennan as Worrall and Newman worked their way to front in heat eleven, but Harris came back at Worrall and Brennan likewise on Newman to enable Glasgow to post another heat gain to protect their first leg lead. Following on from his heat nine exploits, Ben Cook won again but this time his winning points score were the limit of their gain and this second leg remained all square, Monday's defeat continuing to haunt the Pirates, as the league championship trophy's residence was virtually at the end of its tenancy. That was confirmed when, quite fittingly given what he had delivered in this Grand Final, 'Bomber' Harris picked up the win that gave Glasgow their first title since 2011.

Poole still had the pride of trying to retain their unbeaten home form and with Zach Cook putting fair distance between himself and Brennan, with Newman again beating Pijper, Poole had to hang on for one more heat and skipper Worrall secured the goal even though he had Harris, who at times looked like he wanted to clean the air-fence, throwing everything he could. Ben Cook was having a far easier time beating Brennan and so with a 47-43 second leg victory the difference between the two sides was ten points.

POOLE 47
Richard Lawson 1,2,3,1'=7+1 (4)
Rider Replacement
Ben Cook 2,2,3,3,1=11 (5)
Zach Cook 1',0,2,2',3=8+2 (5)
Steve Worrall 3,FD,2,2,3=10 (5)
Kyle Newman 0,3,2,1',1,0,1=8+1 (7)
Joe Thompson 2',0,1',RS,0=3+2 (4)
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GLASGOW 43
Chris Harris 3,3,3,3,2=14 (5)
Tom Brennan 2',1,3,1,2,0=9+1 (6)
Ben Basso 0,3,0,2=5 (4)
Rider Replacement
Vadim Tarasenko 3,2,3,1,0=9 (5)
Lee Complin 1,FD,0,RS,2,1'=4+1 (5)
Ace Pijper 0,1',1,RS,0,0=2+1 (5)
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Ht 1: C.Harris, T.Brennan, R.Lawson, K.Newman 1-5 1-5 [58.5]
Ht 2: K.Newman, J.Thompson, L.Complin, A.Pijper 5-1 6-6 [60.56]
Ht 3: V.Tarasenko, B.Cook, Z.Cook, B.Basso 3-3 9-9 [59.59]
Ht 4: S.Worrall, V.Tarasenko, A.Pijper, J.Thompson 3-3 12-12 [59.83]
Ht 5: C.Harris, B.Cook, T.Brennan, Z.Cook 2-4 14-16 [58.9]
Ht 6: V.Tarasenko, R.Lawson, J.Thompson, L.Complin [fell exc] 3-3 17-19 [AWD]
Ht 7: B.Basso, K.Newman, A.Pijper, S.Worrall [fell exc] 2-4 19-23 [60.63]
Ht 8: T.Brennan, Z.Cook, K.Newman, L.Complin 3-3 22-26 [59.47]
Ht 9: B.Cook, Z.Cook, V.Tarasenko, A.Pijper 5-1 27-27 [59.22]
Ht 10: R.Lawson, L.Complin, K.Newman, B.Basso 4-2 31-29 [60.96]
Ht 11: C.Harris, S.Worrall, T.Brennan, K.Newman 2-4 33-33 [59.75]
Ht 12: B.Cook, B.Basso, L.Complin, J.Thompson 3-3 36-36 [60.6]
Ht 13: C.Harris, S.Worrall, R.Lawson, V.Tarasenko 3-3 39-39 [59.84]
Ht 14: Z.Cook, T.Brennan, K.Newman, A.Pijper 4-2 43-41 [60.72]
Ht 15: S.Worrall, C.Harris, B.Cook, T.Brennan 4-2 47-43 [62.4]